Olympic opinion


Enough to make your chicken…


YOU CHOKE ON t 36


The London Olympics should be the biggest showcase for British Food in generations - but sponsorship deals effectively gag anyone from talking about it, complains Jane Renton


he last time Britain played host to the Olympic Games was in 1948, when London hosted a very thrifty version of the sporting event. There had been a 12-year hiatus because of World War II and Britain was still struggling with austerity and rationing. No new buildings were erected for the occasion. It was the Dark Ages as far as British food was concerned. My Hungarian-born father-in-law, newly arrived on these shores with fond memories of the extravagantly refined cooking of the Austro- Hungarian Empire into whose dying embers he was born, bemoaned the sheer awfulness of the slops that masqueraded as typical British fare.


April 2012 “It might annoy


the French to say this, but Britain’s food culture is arguably now


the most vibrant and dynamic in Europe”


Since then, however, there has been a renaissance. Elizabeth David taught us to love French food, and foreign holidays and immigration from the Indian sub-continent and elsewhere inspired a far more adventurous spirit when it came to eating and cooking other foreign cuisines. More recently it has revived interest in our own great indigenous cuisine, with its rich cultural associations and homegrown quality ingredients. It might annoy the French to say this, but Britain’s food culture is arguably now the most vibrant and dynamic in Europe (just ask Michelin man, who gave it a record number of stars in 2010). Britain’s school meal providers have played a wonderful part in this – educating our country’s youth on the delectable dishes we proudly have to offer. Those caterers


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